Emberstar
by FourthWallBreaker
Summary: Six young adults are rescued from an untimely death in the only way that Vector Prime really seems to know how - by taking them and turning them into Cybertronians! Follow this band as they get used to their new surroundings and actually participating in the war. (inspiration from journal129, Radioactive, Crystal Prime, and others who have done this sort of thing).
1. The Disaster

**Hi, guys! FourthWallBreaker here!**

**After poking around on the FF website for a few years, now, I've come across a few stories that have gotten my interest - mainly, those little fics where characters from our world get thrown into a TF dimension - both mech and femme (Crystal Prime, Sci-fifan95, journal129, Wrecker Radioactive, FireRose Prime, I'm lookin' at you!). So, I'm gonna pull something similar, yet different.**

**For one thing, the people who get pulled through? 6 young adults - 3 boys, 3 girls. Some are blood-related siblings, but not all of them.**

**For another thing, I'm not considering pairings...yet. That may end up popping up sometime down the line, but not right at this very moment.**

**And thirdly, well...the world's gonna be a little bit different from the ones that the femmes and mech listed above are using. Let's just say...I'm aiming for my own universal stream. ;)**

**I can't guarantee that this one's going to be a regular customer for updates, but I hope you guys enjoy it when I get around to putting chapters up!**

**All right, fellas, you know the drill - this author don't own anythin' except for her six little OCs! Hope you enjoy!**

**Chapter 1 - The Disaster**

Aria didn't know what exactly she had been expecting when she had woken up to the sound of the tornado siren. She knew that a thunderstorm was passing through - not really all that big of a deal, now that she really thought about it - but when the siren went off, well...everyone seemed to get into a panic about it, and that made her nervous.

The nineteen-year-old quickly slipped out of bed and dropped to the floor, glancing at the bunk bed that was below hers. When she saw that her sister was already up, she quickly grabbed a red jacket that had flames on the ends of the sleeves before dashing out of the bedroom in sweatpants, a black T-shirt with the red Autobot symbol on it, and bare feet.

It wasn't too long before the dark-haired teenager managed to reach the basement of the large house, joining the others on the concrete floor.

"I didn't think that we were supposed to get tornadoes in this area," Aria commented nervously to the others. Her fingers twitched, and she noticed with some relief that her laptop and a small number of her books were sitting down on the floor nearby.

"They only just announced it." The eldest of the group - a young man in his early twenties - shook his head in disappointment. "You'd think that the weather guys would have a better handle on keeping track of the weather. I just hope that Mom and Dad aren't caught in it."

There were nods of agreement from the others - six teenagers and young adults varying in age from 23 to 18. Not all of them were related by blood, but they were close enough that it was hard enough to tell who was and who wasn't.

"It's probably just another false alarm," commented a twenty-year-old boy with green eyes. "That's all we usually ever get, isn't it?"

"Not all the time," Aria responded. "We were nearly hit with one almost two years ago, remember?" She started to slowly inch her way over to her laptop and the books before picking up one of the novels and opening it up to a bookmark with what looked like a certain Autobot leader's head stuck to the top of it.

"Well, yeah, but-" the nineteen-year-old boy looked at Aria with an expression of surprise. "Don't tell me you're _still_ into that stuff?"

"Well, why not, Matt?" Aria looked up from the book in her hands and glared at the green-eyed teen. "I happen to like this new stuff that they've been coming out with; I don't see why I can't keep re-reading this stuff. It's really good!"

Matt looked like he was about to issue a retort, but the twenty-three-year-old quickly got between the two of them.

"Is this really the best time for that?" he asked, looking between the two of them. "We've got the threat of a tornado hanging over our heads; I'm not going to kick either one of you out to cool off."

Aria ducked her head at the rebuke, looking somewhat embarrassed at the statement.

Matt sighed irritably, but nodded in defeat. "Right; sorry, Aaron."

Aria's dark-haired older brother gave a nod of approval. "I know that the two of you are pretty close, but why you decide to argue about Transformers is anyone's guess."

"He just thinks I should have grown out of liking the older stuff by now," Aria muttered from behind her book. "And that I shouldn't read my novels over and over again to death."

"I think that they can be pretty cool," spoke up a twenty-year-old boy - this one had a light shade of hazel for eyes, and his hair was almost a honeyed brown. "When they're not rewatched to death, that is."

"I'll have you know that I happen to _like_ rewatching the episodes," Aria retorted, looking up from her book again. "Especially the recent ones! _Transformers: Prime_ is awesome!"

"I'm not disagreeing with you." The hazel-eyed teenager held up his hands, then motioned to his own shirt, where Optimus Prime was standing, looking like he was ready for a fight. "It's just that I don't go as far as you do."

Aria frowned like that, but then she gave a sigh. "I guess I do go too far sometimes, don't I?" She gave a slightly sheepish grin.

"You haven't gone as far as some people back in school," another voice spoke up - a eighteen-year-old girl with bright blue eyes and hair the color of wet tree bark. "I think that one of my classmates went dressed as Primus for Halloween once." She made a face at the memory.

"How did they manage _that_?" the hazel-eyed teenager asked, surprised.

"I dunno." The girl shrugged.

"Maybe it was from that one show that got you pulled into Transformers in the first place, Aria," another girl spoke up - another eighteen-year-old with light brown hair and dark blue eyes. "The Unicron Triology, right?"

Aria and the hazel-eyed teenager looked at each other at that, then shuddered.

"That show had some _horrible_ graphics," Aria commented. "How would they have managed to get Primus from _that_, Mara?"

"Ask Will, not me," the eighteen-year-old, light brown-haired girl responded, holding up her hands in a slightly defensive manner.

"There is one episode," the nineteen-year-old teen commented somewhat thoughtfully, "but that one was pretty bad, if you wanted to get a costume for Primus out of it." Will looked over at the other eighteen-year-old. "Did your classmate say how he managed it, Jenna?"'

Aria's sister shook her head. "Not that I can remember. I don't think he was planning on sharing his secrets with anybody."

Aria muttered something, then gained a sheepish look when everyone looked in her direction. The nineteen-year-old shook her head. "It's nothing. Forget I tried to say anything." She went back to reading...and, seconds later, started muttering again about connections between "the Thirteen." The rest of the group chose to ignore her ramblings.

Above them, the siren was suddenly cut off short with a loud shriek, leaving the six sitting in an uneasy silence that left Mara and Jenna looking a little nervous.

"Sounds like we _are_ going to get a tornado," Matt commented, eyebrows raised.

"I think it's already here," Will corrected.

Above the group, the rest of the house started to shake, causing Aria to stiffen and look up sharply at the ceiling of the basement. She slammed her book shut and quickly gathered everything that was hers as close to herself as possible.

"All I can say right now is that I'm glad I brought my stuff down here earlier to write in peace," Aria commented, holding her laptop and four books close while she looked up at the ceiling. "I'd have a hard time getting my hands on _The Covenant of Primus_ again."

The house's rattling started to increase in noise, and the group moved closer to each other instinctively, watching the ceiling and making sure that each other was protected as best as possible against the wall of the basement.

"Please, don't let the house fall on us..." Jenna murmured nervously.

Aaron moved an arm protectively around her. "It's going to be okay. The house is pretty sturdy; we'll be able to make it."

Unfortunately, that wasn't entirely true.

Moments after Aaron finished speaking, the house let out a loud groan; parts of the ceiling started to shake, rattle...and drop. A particularly large piece of wood and tile from the kitchen above fell right on top of where the six were clustered...and everything went black.

**Space Break**

Vector Prime froze time right at that moment, catching the wooden brick just before it could have broken Aaron's head open. He walked around the group of six humans, eyeing them with a serious expression as he considered what exactly it was that he could do with them in order to spare their lives from this unnaturally early death.

It wasn't until he spotted the books in Aria's hands that he realized that someone else might have made the decision already for him.

"Alpha Trion, you really have your digit prints all over the Multiverse," Vector murmured to himself, shaking his helm at the sight of the familiar book. "What were you thinking, giving the humans a taste of our knowledge? Did you think that they were going to discover what we already know?"

Alpha Trion, who was not in the same timeline or dimension as Vector, obviously could not answer the time traveling Prime's question. However, Vector was sure that the Archivist of the Thirteen was watching his brother's predicament with no small amount of amusement.

"I would find it far easier to simply push this out of the way and keep them alive here," Vector continued, "but who's to say that they would survive the rest of this...structure...coming down?" He eyed the roof of the basement. "Despite that boy's convictions that the house will survive, I can already see that some parts are breaking apart."

Metallic digits brushed against cracks in the ceiling that were hidden from more human, flawed eyes, and Vector returned his attention to the humans, considering them again.

"And yet...there is a chance that I might be able to do something for them to allow them to continue living...considering how much this untimely storm has already taken away from them and will take from them if I leave them here. Perhaps they appreciate something of a new life."

Vector looked up at the ceiling of the human basement. "Solus, Micoronus, Onyx, Primus, I know you are watching. Please, assist me as only you can when I return."

That said, the time-traveling Prime vanished rather abruptly, and time resumed with a start. However, something had changed in the basement.

For one, there were two gigantic footprints that had been sunk into the concrete, almost as though what had been standing there was much taller than the house. A second thing was that Aria's laptop and Transformer books were gone.

As for the humans themselves...if paramedics had gotten to them before the ceiling had flattened them, they would have said that all six had died simultaneously of a heart attack.

**Well, what do you guys think? Corny? Cheesy? Want to see more? I'm trying to be as careful as I can to make things different from the others' OC-inserts, so please, let me know if I'm succeeding!**


	2. Rescue

**Hello!**

**Hope I didn't leave you guys hanging for too long. Life, among other things, decided to happen and keep me off this story for a while.**

**Sociopathy (look in the reviews connected to this fic; you'll find her) decided to give me a reason to nearly blow up, but I managed to reel myself back in and calm down. Take note: if anyone does end up running into that monster-critic, take warning: she does not hold back when she flames fics. She does have some fics on the site, but under a different name - why, I don't know. Maybe to separate the critic from the fun-loving author? It's a question that I haven't decided to ask.**

**If anyone's interested in reading Sociopathy's work and seeing where it is that she's coming from by way of experience, PM me, and I'll give you the other profile name that's under the critic's name. If I post it here, I'm afraid that she'll get a lot of hate mail...which, apparently, she likes.**

**She has also claimed that being a flamer is far more productive than encouraging criticism, but I just think that's a load of garbage.**

**So yank that hate mail down to a minimum and let's see what happens, because I think there are some people on this site who handle giving critiques in a much better fashion than she does - like Lord Kelvin on the Sonic the Hedgehog side of things. He was much more civil about my response to one of his reviews than Sociopathy was.**

**So Sociopathy, I appreciate you using your God-given right of free speech, but you're kind of invading on mine, so I'm going to ignore your advice to stop. Therefore, I'm going to keep going with my little experiment at a major OC-insert.**

**Now, with that out of the way...**

**Thanks to DragonChampion, halo is bad ass, Mars. , and TFAN Override for the Favorites and the Follows, and smokescreen14 and wordgeek1000 for the Follows!**

**And now for the reviews that ****_weren't_**** from monster critics:**

**Mars. : Wait no more!**

**wordgeek: I'm glad you like it! Here's the next chapter!**

**Orion childofcommander: Hello, veteran reader! I'm looking forward to reading your comments in future chapters - and I hope that this story is a bit of a new spin on what you've read before.**

**Here we go...let's see what you guys think of this chapter!**

**Chapter 2 - Rescue**

Aria let out a groan as she came to, shaking her head in order to get rid of the headache she was suffering from. When that only made it worse, she resorted to rubbing her head with one hand while she tried to make some sense of where she was.

The rubbing stopped a second later when she realized with a jolt that she was sitting in what looked like a giant glass container...and everything outside of that area was completely made of metal and looked like they had been made for giants.

"A...a forge?" Aria asked somewhat groggily.

"Looks like it."

The nineteen-year-old turned her head and caught sight of Aaron sitting with his legs crossed next to her.

"What happened?" Aria asked, schooching across the metal base of the container to her older brother. "The last thing I remember is sitting in the basement."

"That's the last thing I remember, too," Aaron responded. He looked away from the outside and down at his sister. "It looks like we could have been abducted by aliens or something."

Aria's eyes widened when she heard this. "Aliens?! How is that even-" She made a strangled noise of shock. "Aliens aren't supposed to really exist! They're just science fiction! Why do you think I like reading that stuff?"

"Then where do you think we are?" Aaron motioned to the glass cylinder and the metal forge beyond the clear walls of their prison. "Because I really doubt that this is a dream."

Aria opened her mouth to utter a retort, but then she paused and looked out at the giant metal objects again. She closed her mouth and gained a nervous expression.

"If we've been abducted by aliens..." Aria started, "what happened to the others?"

"I don't know. It looks like there are other containers, but...they're empty." Aaron motioned to his right, and Aria peered around her brother in order to get a look at what he was talking about.

Sure enough, there were two other glass cylinders...and all of them were empty.

Aria swallowed. "That...doesn't bode well."

Aaron opened his mouth as though he was about to answer...but then he suddenly vanished in a flash of light, causing his younger sister to let out a yelp of alarm and jump back from where her brother had been a moment ago.

"Aaron?" Aria called out nervously, looking around. "Aaron!" She scrambled to her feet, panicking as she looked around through the glass of her prison, trying to see what might have taken her brother. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the 23-year-old.

Aria's breathing started to quicken. She had to find a way to get out of here - fast! Who knew what was going to happen to her next?!

_"Calm yourself, daughter of Eve,"_ a voice suddenly reverberated through the air. "_Panic and fear will not get you anywhere."_

Aria jumped when she heard the voice, and her searching started to become more frantic. "Where are you?! Who are you?! What-"

_"Calm yourself. Your brother, sister, and friends are safe. They are simply being transferred into new forms so that their Sparks do not fade so early on in life."_

Aria blinked confused. "New forms..." Her eyes widened a moment later. "Sparks?! Like a Transformer's soul?!"

_"Indeed. And you, young one, will soon join them. Do not fear for them or for yourself. One of my brethren has already rescued you from one death. I am not about to let you find yourself in such danger again so easily. Rest now, and we will explain more when we speak face-to-face."_

Aria felt _something_ wash over her that seemed to force her body to relax somehow. She tried to fight it, attempting to stay awake, but the force was too strong, and the girl's vision faded.

Just before Aria fully blacked out, she felt as though she was floating, and she thought that she saw a kind, gentle face, looking in on her...

**Space Break**

The Thirteenth Prime pulled away from the Energon-filled container, watching as the glowing, soft red orb within it stopped pulsing so rapidly. He waited for a moment longer, observing the slow pulse of the Spark before he turned his attention to the others nearby.

"She will not fade out of fear," he promised the older, purple and gold mech standing at the entrance to the room. "It seems that she knows something of us, however. She recognized the term 'Spark' nearly instantly."

The other mech nodded in response to the unspoken question. "It seems that her home dimension is aware of us, but unable to come into contact with us through normal means. Her kind seems to be the only one that is truly sentient in that dimension. I would have explored more, but I feared becoming trapped in that dimension and time."

There came a feminine snort from nearby, and a purplish helm was lifted as the sounded of pounding metal came to a stop. "Vector Prime? Fearing becoming trapped in a dimension? That I find difficult to believe." The pounding started up again, keeping a strange rhythm that neither Vector, nor the Thirteenth could quite follow.

"You do not yet know what is to happen in the future," Vector Prime responded shortly. "I know that this is not my home dimension, but I thought it to be among the better places to come for the sake of these mere sparklings."

The Thirteenth Prime and the femme at the forge exchanged glances when they heard this, and fixed Vector with curious expressions.

"Please, do _not_ ask," Vector responded shortly. "This is a matter that I cannot disclose without fear of accidentally disrupting something here that Primus might dislike."

The two other Primes considered this for a moment, then nodded.

"It is likely that Alpha Trion knows more of what is to pass than the rest of us," the Thirteenth Prime commented. "I have yet to ask what he foresees for us beyond our recent defeat of Unicron."

"Things could go very differently here than they have in other worlds," Vector Prime responded. "I have seen so many different timelines that it is a wonder that I was able to find this one for the sake of the children that I had rescued." He motioned to the one Spark that still remained in the Energon bath, pulsing softly.

" 'Children'...that word still feels strange for me to say."

"Not for me." The femme at the forge stopped hammering, then put down her hammer. "I consider all of my creations my children - even if they are weapons that were designed to bring down our creator's worst enemy." The femme picked up a pair of tongs, and walked over to the pulsing Spark, dipping the tongs into the Energon bath and easily bringing the little pulsing thing out. Then she walked back into her forge, disappearing mostly from Vector's line of sight.

"I would not think that you would have ever thought of them otherwise, Solus," Vector commented in response.

Solus chuckled. "I am _very_ protective of my children, and for good reason, considering that some of you do not seem to be able to take care of them very well - or yourselves, for that matter." She glanced over at Vector with a playful smirk. "You look like you could use a tune-up. You'd think that your version of me would have made sure that you take better care of yourself."

She turned back to her work, not seeing Vector's optics flicker with a different emotion before electricity began to fly. The Thirteenth, however, did take notice.

"You seem troubled," the mech noted, eyeing Vector with a curious expression. "Are you concerned for the Sparks that you brought here?"

"No; I know that they are in good servos. However, I can't help but wonder what has been done here, in this dimension." Vector motioned to the forge around them. "You said you had defeated Unicron, correct?"

The Thirteenth Prime nodded. "Those of us that remain have been attempting to do what we can to recover. Alpha Trion says that more of us will be coming soon, but I do not know what exactly he means."

Vector ignored the second half of that statement. "Those of you that remain? From what I recall, all of us survived the battle against Unicron."

The Thirteenth Prime frowned. "Then it seems that your path deviates from ours. Megatronus sacrificed himself in order to ensure that Unicron would fall. It is because of him that we were able to cast our enemy out."

Vector's optic ridges shot up when he heard this, and he looked over at Solus, who appeared to be too into her work to notice. "Then our paths are different. Megatronus...survived the battle against Unicron in my dimension. However, I'm afraid that things were not so easy after that..."

"You do not need to tell us; your future is not ours." The Thirteenth Prime put a servo on Vector's shoulder. "However, I am still curious as to what you wish to do with the six Sparks once Solus has finished with giving them forms."

Vector gave a sigh. "They will have to be taken to a dimension that will be closer to their present age than this time period; however, which dimension specifically is somewhat difficult to tell. I have yet to make a full decision on the matter."

"Maybe you ought to talk to Trion about it," Solus suggested, coming over to the two mechs. "What with that book of his, he'll probably be able to figure something out for your six little friends."

Vector considered this, wondering for a moment whether he should take the femme's advice or not, as this dimension was not necessarily his own. However, Alpha Trion would more than likely be willing to assist him.

"Is there any place that Alpha Trion may be hiding?" Vector finally inquired, looking over at Solus with a curious expression.

The Maker of the Thirteen chuckled at the question. "Where else but the newly built Hall of Records? He asked me to build it for him some time ago, and he's made it his home ever since the day I finished. Come on; it's not too far from here." She made her way to the exit from her forge, then transformed into a two-wheeled vehicle mode and sped off.

The Thirteenth Prime and Vector exchanged glances for a moment before they, too, left Solus' forge and transformed into their vehicle modes: a ground mode and an aerial one. They caught up with Solus easily and remained beside her until they reached a domed building in the distance. Just the sight of it caused Vector's Spark to ache.

It had been many giga-cycles since he had last laid his optics on this place...and it would probably be many more before he would again in his dimension. His duties had now brought him far from Cybertron...

The trio of Primes landed outside of the entrance to the Hall of Records, and Vector was not surprised to see the bearded mech standing at the entrance. It appeared as though he was waiting for something.

"So, this is the mech from the alternate dimension?" Alpha Trion asked when the three had transformed. He looked at the Thirteenth Prime with an expectant expression.

"He is," the Prime confirmed, nodding. "I can assume that you already know who he is."

"Yes; Vector Prime." Alpha Trion walked over to Vector, eyeing him with a curious expression. "It seems that you have aged much, for a mech who can control how quickly time flows around him."

"If I stopped myself from aging, then I would have stopped my motion completely," Vector replied. "And where would I be then?"

A smirk made its way across the Archivist's face. "Indeed. I can only assume that you are here on personal business, then? Something about six Sparks and a new home for them."

Something on Vector's faceplate must have shown his surprise, because Trion gave a laugh.

"Oh, don't look at me like that! I was simply reading ahead a little bit. Please; come inside. We can talk much more easily in a more private setting, I believe."

Vector stepped into the Hall of Records and instantly noticed that, while the building was large, the Archivist had clearly taken his time in furnishing the place for one mech and a few guests. While there were stairs that led to other areas, as of that moment, Trion had his desk right in the middle of the main entryway. Bookshelves had already been set up, but there were only one or two bound volumes sitting there. It made the time-traveling, dimension-jumping Prime wonder what else it was that the Archivist was expecting by way of written works in the future.

"So, six organic creatures with their life sources turned into Sparks and given Cybertronian forms," Alpha Trion commented, moving over to his desk. He sat down and opened the large volume that was sitting there. "And you are wondering where exactly to send them."

"They cannot return to their home," Vector stated. "They are dead in that universe, and our kind does not exist there in these forms." He pulled five small objects out of his subspace and placed them on Trion's desk. "I took the liberty of scanning these. They are written works of events that take place in the dimension that I refer to as my home."

"Indeed?" Trion looked interested in the microscopic books and what looked like a miniature datapad with buttons, but he pulled his attention away from them. "So, they are aware of our existence without having seen us. That is indeed interesting."

"Which makes my dilemma all the more difficult, as I do not truly know which dimension would best suit them."

"Well, considering that you came _here_ rather than any other dimension, I should think that you would send them to a dimension that would be similar to this. Considering, after all, that they have these written works on your dimension."

Vector nodded. "I considered that. However, there is potential proof that they know more about us than from just what they have read. I investigated their belongings for the short time that I was there-"

Solus snorted, but was ignored as the Prime continued.

"-and I discovered that they had visual recordings of multiple dimensions. I do not know which specific dimension it would be that they might prefer."

"Well, then it might be prudent that we ask them what they prefer." Alpha Trion rose to his feet. "It has been some time since I last took my wheels for a spin. Perhaps we ought to return to your forge, Solus. I have a feeling that those six are going to be wanting explanations before you send them to their new home, Vector."

Vector blinked a couple times, watching as Trion stepped out of the Hall of Records before he grabbed the small items of the Archivist's desk and subspaced them again. He, Solus, and the Thirteenth Prime were quick to follow after him, taking their alternate forms and heading back the way they had come.

"So, tell me, Vector, how many mechs and how many femmes?" Trion inquired, touching the traveler's wingtip with his own. The fact that this version of the Archivist even _used_ his alt form - and that it was actually a _flier's_, no less - was surprising and intriguing for Vector.

"Three mechs and three femmes," Vector responded. "I tend to believe that they are siblings, like ourselves."

"And yet not, because they were not created by Primus," Trion commented.

"Correct. I highly doubt that they are as mature, either, as the last one Solus transferred was in quite a panic until she was calmed by our brother's presence." Vector pointed a wing down in the Thirteenth's direction.

"Considering the information that I managed to glean from the written works, I can say that I am not surprised. Our brother has affected your dimension quite thoroughly."

There came a curious rumble from the aforementioned Thirteenth Prime, but he said nothing.

"It might be best if he did not reveal himself to them, as we do not know what kind of reaction might result," Trion continued. "I find it highly likely that at least one of them will be aware of his presence, but I doubt that it would be beneficial for them to meet him at this point in time."

"What do you mean, Trion?" Solus asked from below.

"If Vector is going to send these six into a time period that is similar to their own, yet within the dimensions that house us, then I find it highly likely that they are already aware of our number - and, to that extent, where it is that we are in their time. As a result, they may recognize us and accidentally inform some of us what exactly it is that we may end up facing in the future. And this pertains to you two most of all. If we are to have our path remain on its original course, we cannot allow the little ones to learn of who all is present."

"I understand," the Thirteenth Prime rumbled in response. "I shall remain outside of the forge unless otherwise needed."

"I am not going to be leaving my forge open for you two and those six to mess things up!" Solus retorted. "If they've decided to mess with anything, I'm going to weld them all to their berths to make sure they don't make anything worse."

Vector Prime felt a twinge of sadness when he discovered that he had actually been missing Solus' temper.

When they arrived at the forge, the Solus led Trion and Vector inside, leaving the Thirteenth standing guard outside the building. The Maker of the Primes led the two mechs over to a small room at the back of the forge.

"These are they?" Trion asked, looking over the six presently prone forms lying on the six berths.

Solus gave a nod. "Looks like they need a little jolt of Energon to wake them up. You two mechs ready?" When the two mechs gave a nod, she dashed over to a lever on the other side of the room and yanked it down. In mere nanoklicks, Energon lightning came zapping into the room, attracted to the prone forms lying on the berths.

Solus pushed the switch back to its original position after half a klik, then leaned against the wall behind her, watching the six forms in case they needed another jolt.

Luckily, that was not the case, as all six of them started to sit up at once. The reactions that followed, however, were a mix - and all completely unexpected for Solus and Trion.

**I had ****_so_**** much fun writing from the perspectives of the Primes - especially since I know about the ****_Covenant of Primus_**** and who is what Prime. They all have their own characters, and that is most certainly awesome, because Aligned is the first continuity that has all Thirteen Primes officially ironed out for us. :)**

**I don't know if anyone among you knows who the Thirteenth Prime is...so I just left him alone with that title rather than giving him his actual name. I felt that it was kinda more fun that way. ;)**

**So, let me know what you guys think, because we're going to be getting the former-humans' reaction to all of this in the next chapter!**

**See you then!**


	3. Revival

**Happy Thanksgiving, guys!**

**In celebration of this most wondrous holiday, I've decided to upload chapters for all of my stories-in-progress - including this one! Hope you guys enjoy this!**

**Thank you, Leader of the Wolves, Valavare, the hotpocket hunter, Bluebird202, and StarLight837 for the Follows! And thanks to Ratchet's Sparkling and Tinyterror for the Favorite and the Follow! And to kittykat9628 for the Favorite!**

**Responses to reviews:**

**smokescreen14: No problem - here's the next chapter!**

**Bluefeather4299 (Guest): Glad you like it!**

**StarLight837: I'm glad you like the way I'm working with this! And yeah, I'm gonna keep ignoring anybody who'd want to put my story down as garbage in the way that Sociopathy does. Thank Primus she hasn't come back to this one.**

**Savvy Orion childofcommander: *dances around happily* Yup, that's who the Thirteenth is! I couldn't resist sticking him in here. :) I loved writing Alpha Trion's part, too - he just never really got the chance to show of his sense of humor in the other series and books he was in, so I took the chance to do so while he was still young(ish). And yes, unique is good. **

**And now, onto the chapter!**

**Chapter 3 - Revival**

Aria let out a groan as she slowly started to wake up, feeling the nasty headache that had attacked her before come back again with a vengeance. She started to sit up, rubbing at her head like she had before...only to feel like there was something different. It kinda felt like there was armor between her hand and her actual head...

And another thing: when she looked down, she saw bright red and orange armor covering her legs. And not just any type of armor - this was the kind of armor that was usually seen on Autobots...in _Transformers: Prime._

The nineteen-year-old felt like she was going to have a heart attack right then and there.

She started to look over herself a little more frantically, wondering what else may have ended up getting changed. Aria caught sight of gray-black hands - er, servos - when she brought them in front of her face. Her chest - as well as the rest of her armor - looked like it had some kind of flame-like design...not counting the fact that she had wheels stuck to her legs. She felt what seemed to be a warm breeze cross over her back, prompting a rather sudden shudder of surprise down her spine.

"Does this mean what I think it does...?" Aria asked, looking over her armor a little more frantically. She paused and reached up for her neck when she heard her voice come out with what sounded like a metallic accent.

It was at this point that a shocked squeal came from Aria's right, and she turned her head - er, helm. Her eyes - or, rather, optics - widened when she caught sight of the other figures who were in a similar predicament.

The femme who had squealed - a smaller, skinnier Transformer with dark purple and bright blue, lightning-shaped designs on her armor - looked extremely panicked.

"What just happened?!" the purple and blue femme yelped...in Jenna's voice.

"Whoa..." A dark blue mech with white stripes on his doorwings looked himself over, cerulean optics alight with an expression of interest. "I actually look pretty cool."

_"Will?"_ asked a third voice - another femme with a somewhat identical frame to Jenna's, only she had small winglets on her back - Jenna didn't. And there was also the fact that the other femme had neon blue and white, with a small spike of red on the helmet she was wearing.

"Mara?" Jenna's helm turned sharply on hearing the other femme's voice.

"Jenna?" Mara's icy-blue optics blinked a couple of times. "You look...pretty good."

"How can you be calm about all this?" Jenna asked, panicked.

"Panic's not going to get us anywhere right now." Maria held up one of her servos and looked it over. "Besides, I think this is pretty cool."

"You have _got_ to be kidding me!"

Aria's attention moved to the next person who had spoken: a mech who was clearly built as a more robust version of a Seeker, colored in red, black, and silver. The shocked green optics gave Aria the name of the aforementioned mech pretty quickly.

"At least I don't look like the Dorito of Doom from the movies," Matt commented as he continued to look himself over. A frown flickered across his face. "But how did I end up looking like this in the first place?"

"I think it has something to do with the mechs and the femme in the room..."

Aria's gaze flicked up, and she nearly locked optics with the taller, Seeker-winged, dark blue-and-black mech who was sitting on the slab of metal - er, berth - next to hers.

"Aaron?" Aria asked, startled by her brother's appearance.

Aaron glanced over at Aria with deep, electric blue optics hidden behind a clear visor before motioning with his helm towards the other side of the room. Aria followed the motion...and let out a squeak of surprise, backing up a little bit when she saw the purplish-gray femme who was leaning against the wall directly across from her.

"Y-you're...you're Solus Prime!" Aria exclaimed in shock, somehow managing to keep her bearings. "O-one of the Thirteen!"

Solus looked amused by Aria's exclamation, as well as a little bit surprised. "So, you _do_ know who I am. Well, that makes introductions a little easier. Can you guess who those two mechs are over there?" She jabbed a digit to Aria's right, and she looked over at what looked like an open doorway...where two very regal-looking mechs were standing.

"Whoa...Vector Prime and Alpha Trion..." Will sounded a little lost for words. Aria couldn't help but agree with him.

"Indeed," Trion responded, smirking under his beard. Aria couldn't help but like that expression on the Archivist's face. "And who might you younglings be?"

"I'm Aria!" Aria blurted out excitedly, grinning eagerly. She was actually meeting _three_ of the Thirteen Primes! In person!

"I'm Aaron," Aaron intoned respectfully, nodding at the mechs.

"Name's Matt," the green-eyed Seeker stated in a slight grunt.

"I'm Mara," the blue and white femme added, sounding a little curious.

"And I'm Jenna," Jenna finished somewhat nervously. "Um...can I ask a question?"

"You may," Trion responded gently.

"Why are we here, looking like this, rather than back in our house in the basement?"

"I'm afraid that is my doing," Vector Prime stated, stepping forward.

"Huh?" Aria blinked a couple times out of confusion.

"You brought us here?" Will asked, frowning.

"I sensed that your lives were about to end at a rather...premature time, so I came to your aid. However, because of the nature of my assistance and what has already occurred in your world...I cannot send you back to continue living your previous lives."

That statement sent a jolt through Aria's system.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Matt demanded, frowning.

"I pulled your Sparks out of time rather than your bodies; and according to the weather forecasts I sensed on your world, a numerous amount of your former kind were killed as a result of collapsed buildings and a varying number of accidents. I thought it best that, while that would place your deaths as a result of the disaster, I would not see another group of younglings die and did something about it."

Vector's statement was so to the point that it left Aria and the others completely speechless. They exchanged glances of shock and befuddlement, not exactly sure as to what to say next.

"Now, Vector has decided to send all six of you to your proper time, but not necessarily that same world," Trion spoke up. "Considering that there is some proof that you are more than aware of our existence, choosing which dimension has become something of a difficulty for him. And so, we were wondering just how many worlds you are truly familiar with."

The group of six looked at each other again, but Aria found herself with all the stares quickly soon after. She bit her lower lip somewhat nervously.

"Um...well, from what I can remember, we've referred to the different dimensions as Primax, Malgus, Aligned...um..." Aria scratched the top of her helmet, and discovered rather unhappily that she couldn't get at the mental itch that was bothering her. "...Tyran, Viron, and...Aurex, I think. It's been a while since I looked at the list." She looked at Vector curiously. "Do any of those names ring a bell? Or should I call them by their other names?"

Vector, who looked a little surprised, shook his helm. "No, no; it's fine. I just didn't expect you to be able to list off the official names of the universe streams." He frowned slightly. "While that does narrow down my choices some, it doesn't give me enough to truly decide on where it is that you would wish to go."

Aria blinked a couple times, becoming uncertain. "Um...okay, I guess? If it makes it any easier, we kinda like Primax and Aligned more than the others."

Vector gave a slight nod in response as his frown deepened, but he didn't give a verbal response.

"While Vector's thinking himself to death, why don't the six of you come up with better names for yourselves?" Solus interjected. "I mean, no offense, but those other names of yours just don't sound...Cybertronian, if you know what I mean."

Aria's optics widened when she heard that. Get rid of her old name? Actually give herself a _Cybertronian_ name? This day was getting to be both stranger and cooler by the minute!

"Well, I don't see why not," Will commented suddenly. "I mean, if we're going to be Cybertronian, we may as well be called Cybertronian names."

"Sounds good," Aaron agreed. He looked down at himself, examining his servo. "I think...Nightwing works."

"Isn't that already the name of a superhero in those comic books?" Mara spoke up, frowning.

"We're not in their universe, are we?" Aaron - Nightwing - looked over at the femme. "Besides, what else would you think of calling someone with these colors?" He motioned to his black-and-blue frame, as though that proved his point.

"I think it works," Will commented. "Now, what to do for me..." A frown came over his face, optics flickering, before a slight smirk came over his face. "I think I'll go by my username from that online video game - BombBlast."

"BombBlast?" Mara repeated, frowning. "But you look nothing like a bomb. Do you even have bombs?"

"Yes, he does," Solus responded. "I could tell that he was far more into being a weapons specialist and inventor than the rest of you." She gave a knowing smirk, looking like she had been expecting the question to be asked, but that soon faded into a more serious expression. "But try to use them in here and I will dismantle you and turn you into an Energon processor."

Will - BombBlast - gulped. "Yes, ma'am."

Solus relaxed, a sly smile coming over her face. "Good."

"The only name I can think up for myself is Sky," Mara commented, frowning. "But I'm getting the feeling that it should have something else beyond that."

"It kinda looks like you're a grounder, though..." Aria pointed out, frowning.

"So? I'm going off the paint job." Mara motioned to her blue and white form. A moment later, she snapped her digits. "I got it! Skyblade!" She turned and looked over at Jenna. "Your turn!"

Jenna was startled by the suggestion. "Me? I-I don't think-"

"I've already got a name figured out," Matt spoke up. There was a sly grin on his face. "Call me...Vaportrail."

"Vaportrail?" Nightwing raised an eyebrow - well, Aria figured it's technically an _optic ridge_, now.

"Well, why not?" Matt - Vaportrail - gave a large grin to Aria's older brother. "It's what I plan on leaving behind for anyone stupid enough to race me."

"Maybe it'll be _you_ who's eating vapor trails," Mara - Skyblade - commented in a playful manner. She looked over at Jenna. "You still haven't figured out a name yet."'

"And neither has Aria," Nightwing commented, looking down at his sister meaningfully.

Aria ducked her helm out of nervousness when she got the look from her brother. "I'm thinking..."

"Uh-huh." Nightwing didn't sound convinced.

Aria looked down at herself again, scanning her red and orange, fire-styilized armor. "Um...it should have something to do with fire..."

"Do you think it would be all right if I went by Viospark?" Jenna asked. She sounded much calmer than she had when she had first discovered her Cybertronian form. "That's been my user name online sometimes."

"Sounds good," BombBlast stated cheerily. He looked over at Aria, the others following his lead. "You're the only one who's left, Aria. What's it gonna be?"

"I'm...not exactly sure," Aria admitted. "It's gotta be something with fire, though - I know that much."

"Why not Wildfire?" BombBlast suggested.

A frown flickered across Aria's face, and she shook her head. "No, that makes me sound like I have a short temper of some kind."

"Flare-Up?" Skyblade offered.

"No...there's another femme with that name already, I think..." Aria's face screwed up into a look of concentration as she tried to figure out for herself what exactly it was that was going to be her new name.

"You know what you remind me of?"

Aria looked upon hearing Solus' voice. She blinked a couple times in confusion, wondering what exactly it was that the Maker of the Thirteen was talking about.

"When Vector over there brought all of your Sparks in, I made it a point to look at your frequencies before deciding on what I could do with your forms." Solus smirked. "The lot of you kept flickering in and out like distant stars at first, but when you finally settled...well, let's just say those names you've picked suit you better than you realized."

"Really?" Jenna - Viospark - looked surprised upon hearing that.

"Yup. Sounds to me like someone's guiding you to pick those names."

"Someone?" Vaportrail snorted. "Don't you mean something? Like our minds?"

BombBlast knocked the Seeker over the helm. "She's talking about Primus, ya doofus."

Vaportrail glared at the dark blue mech next to him with an annoyed expression while he rubbed his helm.

"Correct, BombBlast," Alpha Trion intoned. "He is the guiding force for us, and it would not be impossible to say the same for you, even if you were not originally Cybertronian."

"Is that the voice I heard, then?" Aria asked, frowning slightly.

"Voice?" Viospark repeated, looking over at Aria with an expression of confusion.

"No, that was not," Vector responded. "That was another member of our brethren, whom I requested to come. Considering the world you were pulled from, I thought it might be wise to bring in someone you might consider more familiar than the rest of us."

Aria blinked a couple times, but then she remembered one of the bound works that she had been reading back at home, and her optics widened. "You don't mean...the _Thirteenth_ Prime, do you?"

"As that is what you refer to him as at this point in time."

"Thirteenth Prime?" Skyblade repeated.

BombBlast leaned over and whispered something into the blue and white femme's audio receptors, gaining an expression of shock when he was done.

"You can't be serious," Skyblade squeaked. "Aria heard _him_?! I didn't even know that he was one of the original Thirteen!"

"So that little ember isn't the only one who knows things about us," Solus commented, looking over at Aria with an amused expression.

"Ember?" Aria blinked a couple times upon hearing that.

"Youngling, your Spark reminded me very much of the embers from my forge." Solus smirked. "If you're not a Wildfire or a Flare-Up, then you are a small ember - for now."

"Oh." Aria looked a little dumbfounded for a moment, then gave a slight nod. "I...I guess I can see that." She looked down at herself again, wondering what exactly might work for herself. That one statement that Solus had said before - about all of them flickering like stars - stuck out the most in her mind. Couple that with the idea of her being an ember, and...

"Emberstar," Aria stated aloud. "I think that'll work." She nodded quietly to herself, partially out of approval, and partially out of the finality of the idea.

"I'd say that works." Solus chuckled out of approval, then glanced sidelong at Vector and Trion. "What about you mechs? Do you approve of their designations?"

"I believe that goes without saying," Trion responded, a slight smile on his face.

Aria - Emberstar - found that she was really liking being able to meet these members of the Thirteen in person. She wished that she might be able to meet some of the other members...like the Thirteenth.

Maybe...she might be able to meet the rest of them soon?

"So, what now?" Viospark asked, looking between the three Primes. "I mean, what are we going to do now?"'

"Now?" Solus snorted. "Now Vector gets his processor together and figures out where to send you six so that he can go back to his own dimension."

"His own dimension?" Nightwing repeated. "You mean this isn't his home?"

"And we're not going to get to meet the rest of the Thirteen?" Emberstar sagged in disappointment.

"Indeed not," Vector responded in a somewhat grim tone. "As your present knowledge is similar to what is occurring in my dimension, I was unable to bring you to my Cybertron for...certain reasons. And I am not about to allow you to possibly reveal anything about the future to the mechs and femme of this dimension."

Emberstar blinked a couple of times before her optics widened, but then she gained something of a saddened expression. "Oh." She looked around again. "So, what now, then? Are we going to get sent to the future of this universe?"

"I shall leave that to you to discover, because I am not about to cause ripples in the time stream for the sake of your kind's curiosity."

An annoyed expression crossed Emberstar's face, causing Nightwing to chuckle at the sight and move a servo around to her back, as though he was going to pat it. When the red and orange femme felt him touch something that was not her back and was extremely sensitive, however, she let out a surprised yelp and jerked away from Nightwing.

"What did you grab?" Emberstar asked, looking up at her brother in surprise.

"You don't know that you have wings?" Nightwing sounded amused. "They've been twitching like crazy and telegraphing your emotions ever since you woke up."

Emberstar blinked in confusion a couple times when she heard that. "Wings? Are you sure?" She turned halfway around in order to look at her back, and her eyes widened when she caught sight of the two, Seeker-like wings that were attached to her back. "But...how? I've got tires on my legs - doesn't that mean I'm a grounder?"

"Not quite," Solus responded. Emberstar turned to look back at the Prime as she continued, "You and your brother Nightwing are a part of a little idea that popped into my processor some time ago. I thought that it might be a good idea to test it out. If your forms work as they should, you two should be able to transform into two different and unique alt modes. I'm thinking of calling you two 'triple-changers.'"

Emberstar's optics widened, and she looked up at her brother. "Whoa...we're the first triple-changers here?"

"Seems like it." Nightwing looked himself over again, a curious expression on his face. "I wonder what's going to happen if we try to transform..."

"I believe that you will be more than capable of learning those skills later," Trion stated. He looked up at Vector. "Are you ready to send them on their way, brother of another universe?"

"Yes, I believe I am," Vector responded, nodding to the Archivist. The interaction brought a giggle out of Emberstar, who still felt like she was reliving a fantasy.

"Where are we going?" Vaportrail asked, frowning at the Prime.

"There is a small corner of the 'Aligned' universe cluster that has caught my attention," Vector continued. "I believe that you are going to find yourselves fitting in quite well there, after you have fully adjusted to your Cybertronian forms and revealed yourselves, that is. Are you prepared for the journey?"

The six former-humans looked at each other, gauging each other's expressions. Nightwing was the one who spoke up.

"I believe we are," the triple-changer stated.

"Very well, then. Be prepared, as the journey may be a little bit...bumpy for the six of you."

Emberstar's vision blurred, then exploded into a burst of bright colors mere seconds before she felt her helm hit something very _hard_. It wasn't too long after that she ended up blacking out...again.

**There you are! New names for the OCs, a destination...next chapter lets you see what happens when they get to that dimension!**

**See you next time!**


	4. Arrival

**Hiya! I'm back with yet another chapter for you guys! :)**

**I was thinking of posting this sometime next week, when my finals were done, but I figured I'd get it out of the way before then so that I didn't have to make you wait for too long. I'm going to need some time if I'm going to get the next chapter done, though, so don't expect to see anything new for a while after this.**

**Thanks to Raider5000 and Tai-Ookami for the Favorites (and Follows!)!**

**SO - Thanks! I kinda see Aria as me, and there's no way that I'd be able to come up with something all that easily. Solus can definitely put fear into little trigger-happy mechs and femmes for the sake of keeping her forge safe :) Hope you like this chapter!**

**Bluebird202 - Name mix-ups happen to me too, sometimes. After I decided that Jenna was going to be "Viospark," I ended up writing "Vio****_light_****" instead for a while. :p**

**Chapter 4 - Arrival**

"Emberstar! You awake?"

There came a groan as Emberstar's optics flickered on, revealing the same electric shade of blue as Nightwing's. She rubbed her helm, a disgruntled expression coming over her face.

"You'd think that I'd get immune to these helmaches after a while," Emberstar muttered, frowning. She looked up when a servo was held out to her, and she accepted the gesture.

"I don't think that we're ever going to get used to that," BombBlast commented as he got Emberstar to his feet.

The femme looked around, frowning at the open landscape. "Uh...where are we? And where's everyone else?"

"Nightwing went out with Vaportrail to have a look around," BombBlast responded, shrugging. "Skyblade and Viospark are trying to figure out how to transform, but I don't think we can do it without scanning another vehicle mode or something."

"Yeah, that makes sense..." Emberstar looked around again, taking note of the hard rock that was under their feet - or was it pedes now? "Well, doesn't look like we're anywhere near anything familiar...like the Midwest..."

"I've already managed to confirm that."

Emberstar turned her head upon hearing her brother's voice, and she caught sight of Nightwing and Vaportrail walking towards them. The other two femmes tagged along behind them, looking somewhat dejected.

"It looks like we're in Nevada," Nightwing added. "I caught sight of a sign near a highway, and it looks like we're pretty close to Las Vegas."

"Nightwing seems to think that we're close to the Autobot's base," Vaportrail commented as the group came to a stop. "Any idea where that is, Emberstar?"

"Why are you asking me?" Emberstar responded, frowning.

"Vector Prime said he was sending us to the Aligned continuity," Skyblade responded. "You're the one who kept up with that show and rewatched the episodes the most. It would make sense that you might know at least _something_."

"Well, yeah, but I've never been too good at geography." Emberstar shrugged helplessly. "All I know is that their base was in a mesa outside of Jasper at first, and there's no telling when we got dropped onto the planet. The war could have ended, for all we know."

"She's kinda got a point," BombBlast spoke up, nodding in agreement. "So, what do we do now?"

"I say we figure out how to transform," Skyblade responded.

"We're probably gonna need something to scan in order to get an alt mode, though..." Viospark trailed off and rubbed the back of her helm nervously. "Right?"

"Sounds about right," Vaportrail muttered. "It's not like we're going to be able to move around without being seen like this. Anybody who sees us is probably going to panic. A lot."

"You weren't so worried when we went to look at the sign over the highway," Nightwing commented, sending the Seeker a dry look. 'What made you change your mind?"

"Seeing how small we used to be. I mean, how would _you_ react if you saw a Transformer for the first time?" Vaportrail jabbed a digit into Nightwing's chest plates - probably directly over where the mech's Spark was.

"I would probably have a heart attack, then call the police," Nightwing responded. After a moment, he added, "And they would probably me think of me as crazy unless the Transformer stayed in one particular area."

"Exactly. Glad to see I'm not the only one around here with his helm on straight. So we've gotta find forms to change into and figure out _how_ to change into them, or else who knows what's going to happen. We could end up like Bumblebee did with those Sector 7 goons for all we know."

That statement sent a shudder through the other five.

"Then we'd better find the Autobots," BombBlast commented. "At this point, they're kind of our only hope in figuring out how to scan a vehicle and figuring out how we can transform into it."

"We could try to figure it out on our own," Viospark offered. "Wasn't there some kind of trick to it in the TV shows?"

"Umm...From what I remember, all they did was look at a vehicle, and then this weird light came out of their optics and went over the object," Emberstar offered. "Maybe it has something to do with concentrating or something like that."

"They may have to concentrate in order to activate the light that scans the vehicle," Nightwing agreed. "Maybe Vector should have had Solus explain that to us before he brought us here."

"Yeah, that would have been _really_ helpful," Vaportrail responded snarkily.

"Vaportrail, now's not the time for that."

"No, really?"

Emberstar let out a sigh and shook her helm while Nightwing rolled his optics at the Seeker. "Matt..."

"What? Do you want me to act like I know what I'm doing, like in those fanfictions you like to read so much?" Vaportrail gave Emberstar a glare, causing the femme to flinch. "Don't tell me that you're thinking that you should be able to do everything that the Transformers can do without actually learning from them."

"I-I'm not!" Emberstar protested.

"Then what are you thinking, _Aria_?"

"I'm _thinking_ about what we're going to do when we run into the Autobots." Emberstar gave the Seeker an irritated look that morphed into one of concern. "They probably aren't going to believe that we used to be human, but I haven't figured out anything else that I want to say to cover that up."

"She's got a point," Viospark commented, gaining a nervous expression. "What are we going to tell them?"

"The truth."

Emberstar and the others turned sharply to look at Nightwing.

"Considering those fanfictions that you read so much, Emberstar, they're probably going to end up figuring it out sooner or later," the darkly-colored triple-changer continued. "We could tell them right off the bat and get it out of the way before they find out on their own."

"But will they believe us?" BombBlast countered. "It's not like we have proof actually _on_ us."

"Yeah...everything we had before was probably destroyed in that tornado," Skyblade agreed, nodding, "and it's not like we can go back home now and get anything - we're in an entirely different dimension!"

"And we won't get to see our parents, our friends..." Emberstar bit at her lower lip nervously at the thought, and her wings dropped down a little. "We're on our own, now."

Vaportrail snorted. "We're technically adults, you know. It's not like we rely on our parents for _everything_. Now are we going to figure out that transforming thing or not?"

"Personally, I'm more curious abou' wha you kids are talkin' abou' more dan watchin' ya find new forms fer yerselves," commented a voice with a Southern accent.

The six jumped when they heard the voice, and Viospark quickly backed up behind Nightwing, who stiffened up a little as he and the others looked around.

"Oh, great," Vaportrail muttered. Emberstar and the others turned, only to see the Seeker glaring at a figure standing a short distance away from them. "Looks like we've been found."

"Wasn' too hard, considerin' dat y'all have yer Spark signatures unshielded," commented the figure. The mostly-white mech (except for the red and blue stripes, as well as the black helmet) walked over to the group. "Now, what was dat abou' bein' human before ya got here?"

Emberstar and BombBlast looked up at Nightwing, wondering what the older mech was going to do, considering the situation they had just found themselves in.

"We were rescued from death in our home dimension," Nightwing responded. "Vector Prime decided to have us transferred into Cybertronian forms and dropped here, rather than simply rescued and left alone in our home dimension."

"Really? An' how am I to believe dat?" The mech crossed his arms over his bumper-chest, helm cocked as his visor was trained on the taller, darker-colored mech. His downturned mouth made it seem almost as though the mech was scowling.

"We come from a dimension in which we're extremely familiar with Cybertronians from multiple different universes?" Emberstar suggested hopefully. "Like how you're Jazz, and you're Optimus' close friend from back when he went by the name Orio-"

The mech - Jazz - moved so fast that Emberstar let out a squeak of surprise when he suddenly appeared in front of her.

"I don't recognize you, kiddo," Jazz commented, "an' yer way too young to know sometin' like dat. Yer barely in yer adult frame, fer Primus' sake!"

Emberstar stepped back a little, nervous at having suddenly found herself optic-to-visor with the leader of the Special Ops unit. "I-it's like my brother said. We're from another dimension, and we used to be human and extremely familiar with you guys."

"Uh-huh." Jazz sounded skeptical. "Familiar _how_, exactly?"

"Books, video games, cartoons, movies, websites." BombBlast counted on his digits as he listed off the sources. "You guys are really cool-looking toys, too, but you don't really exist as real people in our universe."

"What _used_ to be our universe," Skyblade corrected, elbowing the mech in the side. "Vector Prime technically said we were supposed to be dead because of that tornado, remember?"

"Vector Prime?" Jazz repeated, surprised.

"Yeah," Nightwing responded. He glanced around for a moment, eyeing the desert around them. "Is there a place we can talk about this without the possibility of some unknowing ears picking up on our conversation?"

Jazz cocked his helm at the statement. "How am I ta know dat you six ain't Decepticons?"

"We don't have either faction marking, for one thing," Vaportrail muttered, scowling. Nightwing dropped a servo on the Seeker's shoulder, as though warning against him doing anything.

"You heard us talking," Nightwing responded. "We don't know how to transform, much less how to activate our weapons. You're more than welcome to test my statement, if you want."

Emberstar stiffened when she heard her brother say that. "Nightwing?" she squeaked nervously.

"Please, don't," Viospark whimpered from where she was hiding behind Nightwing.

Jazz didn't move for a moment, helm cocked, arms crossed over his chest. Then he let out a sigh and shook his helm, uncrossing his arms and dropping them to his sides.

"Ah ain't gonna shoot a bunch a kids," he finally commented, "even if y'all are a little weird."

Emberstar, Viospark, Skyblade, and BombBlast let out sighs of relief, the mech wiping his brow with a servo in a distinctly human action.

"We aren't kids," Vaportrail muttered under his breath, scowling. Nightwing squeezed his shoulder in response, but said nothing.

"Hey, Ratch'." Jazz moved his left servo to the left side of his head. "I got six really confused Cybertronians out here. All of 'em claim dey came from another dimension, used to be human, and have absolutely no idea how to transform or pull our deir weapons. Dey could have been dropped on de helm a few times when dey were sparklin's. Mind sendin' a Ground Bridge my way?"

Emberstar frowned at the statement. Jazz still didn't believe them?

There was a moment's pause and then a bright green portal opened up behind the mech, flecks of blue and red scattered within it.

"Come on," Jazz stated motioning for the six to follow him. The mech started to move into the portal as he continued, "An' don' wait up."

Emberstar started to move forward, but then she came to a near-abrupt stop out of surprise when Nightwing suddenly moved in front of her and the others as they stepped into the Ground Bridge.

"Nightwing-"

"I'm not about to let my little sister walk in first," the black-and-blue triple-changer in front of Emberstar responded. He turned his helm to look back at her as they walked through the glowing green tunnel that was the Ground Bridge. "You're not a fighter, and I'm the oldest of all of us. It would make sense that I would go first."

Emberstar frowned at her older brother. "It's just the Autobots. What could happen?"

"Anything."

Emberstar's frown deepened when she heard her brother's one-word response, and she opened her mouth as though to retaliate...but then they stepped out the other side of the Ground Bridge and into a large room that was a mix of rock and gray metal, with small platforms running along the walls in some areas - those were clearly meant for humans.

"Whoa..." Emberstar looked around in amazement as she stepped out of the Ground Bridge, the others moving past her when she came to a stop in order to admire the base. However, she wasn't able to admire it for long.

"You six!"

Emberstar and the others turned their helms upon hearing the gruff voice, and they caught sight of a rather grumpy-looking (and familiar) red and white mech standing near what looked like a computer console of some kind. In his servos was the _largest_ wrench that any of them had ever lain their optics on, and considering the way the mech was holding it, he wasn't afraid of hitting Cybertronians over the helm with it.

"Medbay," the mech stated shortly. "Now."

"I'm not about to argue with you," BombBlast commented, holding up his servos. "Just...could you put the wrench away? Please? None of us are going to cause any trouble."

The medic eyed him with a sour expression before turning and walking down an adjoining corridor in the base. Emberstar's optics widened when she saw the wrench actually disappear from his servos. How in the world did he manage that?

"Go on, get goin'." Jazz made a "shooing" motion with his servos. "Ya don' want ta keep Ratchet waitin'."

At _that_ statement, Viospark quickly set out after the red and white mech, Skyblade practically on her heels. BombBlast followed them at a more relaxed pace, and Nightwing made sure to put himself behind Vaportrail and push him toward the corridor. Emberstar tailed all of them, looking like she was a little bit lost for words as to their surroundings.

As the red and orange femme left the main area of the base behind, she glanced back at Jazz with an expression of curiosity, taking in the room one more time before she followed everyone else into the medbay.

The medbay was practically right off the main room of the base, and it was a pretty small area for seven Cybertronians of various sizes to be crammed into at once. The medic muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like curses for not having a larger medbay to accommodate for all the neutrals.

"Let's get you out of here before you destroy something by accident," the medic stated, looking up at Nightwing. "Get on the berth."

Nightwing gave a slight nod in response, then moved over to the metal slab in the room and lay down on it, the other five moving to stay out the medic's and the triple-changer's way.

"Designation?" Ratchet asked as he messed with something on his left arm. A green wave of light came out and started to go over Nightwing.

"Nightwing," the mech on the berth stated, eyeing the medic.

Ratchet frowned slightly. "That doesn't sound like a human designation."

"I've answered to Aaron from birth to a few hours ago. Solus Prime suggested that we change our names, and we did so."

The green beam cut off suddenly as Ratchet made a spluttering noise. "_Solus_?! Impossible!"

"Um...if you could tap into our memory banks, you'd say otherwise," Emberstar commented somewhat nervously. She moved her servos behind her back and looked down at her feet when Ratchet turned his attention to her.

"I am not about to stoop to such an action," Ratchet countered, frowning at the femme. "Only the Decepticons would dare to invade another Cybertronian's processor." He turned to a computer system that was in the wall nearby and inputted the data from the scanner. Within seconds, Nightwing was on the green monitor, stats and everything else listed in Cybertronian glyphs that none of the six could read.

A moment later, Ratchet made another spluttering noise.

Nightwing sat up on the berth and looked over at the medic with a curious expression.

"What is it?" Viospark asked cautiously.

Ratchet turned and looked at the rest of them, then pointed at Viospark. "Come over here. Now." There was a strange tone in his voice - almost as though he was panicked or excited.

Viospark hesitated, but then she was nudged forward by BombBlast. The femme stumbled for a few steps before she managed to regain her balance. Then she sat down on the berth and flinched a little bit when Ratchet's scanner went over her optics.

"Designation?" Ratchet asked.

"Viospark...but I used to go by Jenna." Viospark rubbed the back of her helm nervously when she saw the frown that came over Ratchet's face.

The medic turned and quickly inputted the data, and Viospark's stats appeared in Cybertronian. Emberstar felt disappointed that she couldn't read what it was that was on the monitors, because she really wanted to know what it was that was getting Ratchet so riled up.

"You." Ratchet pointed at Vaportrail, who didn't move until Nightwing got over behind him and pushed him.

"He always made it a point to inform us that he never really particularly liked doctors," Emberstar piped up, watching Vaportrail move towards the berth. When the Seeker sent her a glare in response, Ratchet took the opportunity to scan the mech when he wasn't looking.

"I've dealt with mechs of this manner before," Ratchet commented in a low growl. When Vaportrail fixed _him_ a glare, the medic suddenly held up the large wrench. "And I do not intend to have another troublemaker in my medbay."

Vaportrail glared at the mech, but said nothing. Ratchet seemed to take that in a good way, and the wrench disappeared again.

"Name?"

"Vaportrail. Matt. See if I care which one you call me." Vaportrail's voice came out in a sneer as he glared at Ratchet.

"Vaportrail, you might not want to threaten the medic with the wrench," BombBlast spoke up quickly. Emberblast nodded in agreement.

"In fact, I'll go next so that I can just get it out of the way," the dark blue mech continued.

Ratchet gave a nod of approval, then moved over to the monitor and plugged Vaportrail's data in. As soon as BombBlast was sitting on the berth, the medic had turned around again with his scanner prepped and even more of a concerned, almost unnerved expression on his face.

BombBlast raised an optic ridge at the expression on the medic's face. "Something bothering you?"

Ratchet's face shifted almost instantly back to his usual grumpy, annoyed expression. He wordlessly turned on his scanner and went over BombBlast before turning back to the monitor, calling, "Next!"

Skyblade exchanged glances with Emberstar. "You wanna go or-"

"It's fine." Emberstar waved off the question. "Go ahead."

"Kay, then." Skyblade moved over to the berth and took BombBlast's place, swinging her legs back and forth as she waited for Ratchet to turn around.

"What was your designation, mech?" the medic asked without turning around.

"BombBlast. Or Will." The mech shrugged.

Ratchet sent BombBlast a strange look. "Are you _sure_ you're not a troublemaker?"

"Not in the medbay."

Ratchet gained something of an uneasy, suspicious expression while BombBlast looked back with a straight face. The medic sighed and threw his servos in the air a moment later.

"Why do I even bother?" the medic muttered as he turned his attention to Skyblade.

"I'm Skyblade, but I used to be Mara," Skyblade stated as the scanner ran over her. She slipped off the berth as the green light disappeared.

Ratchet gave her a nod before turning and entering the data.

"Your turn," Skyblade stated, nodding to Emberstar as she returned to the others.

The red and orange femme swallowed nervously. "Okay...here goes nothing." She moved forward at a cautious paced and stopped in front of the berth when Ratchet turned around and looked at her.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Ratchet asked, eyeing Emberstar with a tired and irritated expression.

Emberstar swallowed again and moved to sit up on the berth again, watching Ratchet as he activated his scanner. She shook her helm when the green light got into her optics for a moment.

"And you are..."

"Aria," Emberstar responded. "At least, that was my human name." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I've decided to go by Emberstar now."

Ratchet turned back to his computer system and entered the data. A moment later, the femme appeared on the screen, which was once again covered in Cybertronian glyphs.

"I really wish I could read that stuff," Emberstar muttered under her breath. She looked down at her servos with a scowl clear on her face.

"By the AllSpark..."

Emberstar looked up in confusion upon hearing Ratchet say the statement in shock and awe. "Huh?"

Ratchet turned to look at the six Cybertronians that were crowding his medbay. He frowned at them and suddenly brought out his wrench and shook it at them. "Remain here, or I _will_ bash your helms in if I have to get the point across." He sent a glare in BombBlast's and Vaportrail's directions before turning and walking out of the medbay at a brisk pace.

"What was that all about?" Skyblade asked, frowning.

Emberstar shrugged helplessly. "Don't look at me." She slipped off the berth and joined the others standing around it. "Something's not right, though. What do you think that Ratchet saw on those things?" She motioned to the monitor, where her figure was still emblazoned.

"Perhaps the truth that we weren't able to get them to believe on their own," Nightwing suggested. "Think about it - our new forms were created by _Solus Prime_ - there should be something that comes up in his scans that would be proof of that."

"Yeah, but how does that help us convince them that we were human before that?" Viospark countered. "They could think that we're just really, really ancient."

"When we've already said that we don't know how to transform?" Vaportrail snorted. "I seriously doubt that."

"We haven't lived for a long time, either," BombBlast pointed out. "At least, according to Cybertronian standards. Wanna bet his scans came back with data that points to us getting spat out of the Well of AllSparks a few hours ago?"

"Well, considering what I can remember from the _Covenant of Primus_..." Emberstar trailed off for a moment, only for her optics to widen. "Shoot! I don't have the actual book anymore! Vector Prime might have left it behind when he brought us out of our own universe!"

"Like it would have been of any use to you," Vaportrail responded snarkily. "There's no way you would have been able to _read_ it, considering how big we are now."

"Well, yeah, but they could have served as proof that we weren't originally a part of this dimension - considering that I had my novels and my laptop with me, too..." Emberstar let out a sigh. "Great. Just great. I really liked reading those things..."

"Did you really think that it would have been a smart idea to bring those things with us?" Violight asked. "I mean, this dimension wasn't supposed to have Jazz on Earth, right?"

The other five turned to look at the purple femme, then over at Emberstar, who frowned.

"Not from what I can remember," Emberstar admitted. "It was just Optimus, Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet...and Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus, and Wheeljack joined them later. Jazz just...he was mentioned in the novels as having been with Optimus on the _Ark_, but he didn't show up in the cartoon." Emberstar shrugged helplessly.

"So we've just wandered into an alternate dimension," Vaportrail commented in response. "Big deal."

"In case you haven't noticed, only Ratchet and Jazz are in the base at the moment," Skyblade responded. "Ratchet was the only one who stayed on Earth right at the end of the TV show. We could have completely missed _Predacons Rising_ and just jumped straight for the time of peace that came afterwards."

"Are you six sayin' dat you know sometin' abou' de future? Cause de war ain't over yet."

The six jumped when they heard Jazz's voice, and they turned to look at the door to the med bay, where the mech was leaning against a doorpost in a relaxed stance. The mech appeared serious.

"That depends on how much is different from what we already know," Nightwing responded carefully. "And that could be a lot of things."

"Which would make what we know completely useless," Vaportrail commented in a huff.

"Yeah, well, I don' think so. Ratch' said yer systems haven't been used at all an' ya didn' have any mental damage, so der may be some truth to yer little story."

"We're _not_ mentally damaged," Emberstar muttered, scowling as she crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not like we're insane or anything."

"I never said ya were," Jazz responded. He stopped leaning against the doorframe and looked the group over as he walked into the med bay. "Ratchet's contactin' Prime to figure out what we're gonna do wit' ya. So, 'til den, yer gonna sit tight in here an' not touch anytin'."

"Gotcha," BombBlast responded. "I'd rather avoid the wrench while we're on the Hatchet's territory."

Jazz turned sharply to look at BombBlast, surprise clear on his face while Emberstar stifled a giggle. "Where'd ya hear 'bout dat nickname?"

"Read about it when I was still human." The mech gave a one-shoulder shrug. "Doesn't mean that I'll say it to his face, though. I'd rather like to keep my doorwings _on_ and not have them turned into a toaster."

Jazz stared at BombBlast for a moment, then shook his helm, turned and walked out of the medbay, muttering something under his breath.

"Well, if that doesn't prove what we've been saying all along, I don't know what will," BombBlast commented as the mostly-white mech disappeared from the room.

"I'm kinda curious about what else may have ended up changing," Emberstar commented. "If Jazz is here and the war's still going on...what else is different?"

"Something tells me we'll be finding out soon enough," Nightwing responded.

**There! Looks like we've got some changes from the usual ****_Transformers: Prime_**** storyline - for one, Jazz is on-base. If there's anything else that's going on, though...well, I'm not gonna say anything until I get to that point in the story.**

**So, what did you guys think of how I threw that crew of six in there? I personally liked the fact that it was Jazz who snuck up on them like that. :) He's pretty fun to work with.**

**Whelp, see you guys next time I post!**


	5. Weapons Testing

**Happy New Year, you guys! I've been busy playing things and whatnot that I haven't had very much time for writing in general...so you guys have completely caught up with me now. I wouldn't expect another chapter for a couple months at least.**

**Thanks to Murigen79, HeartsGuardianSol, War WereWolf, Yoake no tenshi and Victorsmyname for the Favorites and Follows!**

**And now the reviews:**

**DJ Jazzy-D (Guest): I was disappointed when Jazz wasn't included in the TV show, either. That's why I included him in this! And writing him is just so much fun!**

**Muirgen79: I definitely did mix up the timelines a bit. And yeah, they do seem to be taking it a lot more easily than they probably should be...I expect that it will be hitting them like a brick wall in the future. If not, then...well, there are some people who handle abrupt changes better than others. As for who is around and who isn't...I'm going to be revealing that in the future.**

**HeartsGuardianSol: Ya gotta wonder if there are any Jazz haters out there. I hope there aren't.**

**Victorsmyname: Yeah, a lot of characters can make it hard to keep track of everybody. I'm hoping that this'll give me some practice in keeping track of this many characters at once.**

**Raider5000: I can't wait to see what happens, either! That's what makes writing so much fun!**

**And here's the chapter! Hope you enjoy it!**

**Chapter 5 - Weapons Testing**

Emberstar was pacing in a nervous, almost worried fashion by the time that Ratchet and Jazz had returned to the medbay. The medic had a glowering expression on his face while Jazz had something of a knowing smirk.

"Well?" Nightwing asked, prompting his sister to stop her pacing and look over at the two Autobots.

"We're gonna keep ya on base fer a few days," Jazz responded. "Prime wants me ta see how good you six are wit' defendin' yerselves an' workin' wit' de humans we've got wanderin' in an' out o' de base."

"And when those days are up?" BombBlast asked.

"He'll see if ya need ta be relocated ta one o' de other bases we got."

"Other bases?" Emberstar's wings twitched in surprise when she heard that. "I didn't think you had other bases."

"Well, yeah - what did ya tink we were gonna do, have all o' us crammed into one space?" Jazz shook his helm. "We'd all go insane from bein' so close ta each other. Ratchet nearly did, an' dat's why he's here an' not on de _Ark_."

The group of six former humans exchanged glances when they heard this, then looked back at Ratchet and Jazz with looks of interest and surprise.

"Sometin' up?" Jazz asked. Emberstar thought that she thought she could see part of Jazz's visor go up, like he was raising an optic ridge, but she put it off as her seeing things.

"We weren't expecting the _Ark_ to actually be here on Earth," Viospark commented.

"Well, where'd ya expect it ta be? On da moon?"

"The TV show never really did say," Emberstar murmured quietly. "And the books I had didn't even have you guys getting to Earth yet, but I knew that you eventually did..."

Ratchet and Jazz exchanged glances, looking like both of them were wondering if the femme was crazy or not.

"Okay..." Jazz looked back at the group. "So, since yer systems are all shiny and unused, how 'bout we put ya through da ringer in da Safe?"

"The Safe?" Viospark repeated, frowning.

"I think that's the name of the training area they've got in the base," BombBlast commented.

"Um...didn't Ratchet accidentally set off a nuclear missile when he set that up?" Emberstar asked hesitantly.

The medic made a spluttering noise. "How did you hear about that?"

"Comic book/website," BombBlast and Emberstar said at the same time. The two looked at each other and frowned while Ratchet spluttered again.

"You kids are startin' ta freak me out a lil'," Jazz commented. A smirk came across his face. "Although, considerin' dat ya managed ta freak out Ratchet, dat evens it out a lil'. Come on, you six - let's head down there and see what you've got!"

With that, Jazz turned and practically _bounced_ out of the medbay. The six exchanged glances before following after him, leaving Ratchet glaring after them as he remained in the room.

"Crazy younglings," Emberstar heard him mutter as she stepped out.

"Don' min' Ratchet," Jazz stated as Ratchet slammed the door to the medbay shut. "He's always grumpy like dat."

"Yeah." BombBlast looked back at the medbay door as they arrived in the main room of the base - Emberstar made a mental note to figure out what exactly it was that the Autobots called this part of the base. "I wonder what he looks like when he's happy."

"De kids called 'im a mad scientist las' time 'e was." Jazz moved over to a large cylinder embedded in the wall - the elevator. The mech's statement made Emberstar remember something from the cartoons.

"Science projects for the kids?" the red and orange triple-changer guessed.

Jazz sent the femme a weird look as the elevator door opened. "Yeah. How'd you figure dat one out?"

"Saw it on a TV show back in our home dimension." Emberstar gained something of a nervous expression as Jazz continued to look at her like she was crazy. "Ratchet made Raf a Cybertronian volcano that ended up blowing a hole in the school roof, but I don't really remember what happened with the other projects."

"...You're really startin' ta freak me out."

Emberstar rubbed the back of her helm. "Um...sorry?"

"Nah, s'okay fer now - I'm used ta stuff doin' dat ta me. But Ratchet ain't, so don' tell 'im dat ya saw dat, kay?" Jazz offered a sly smirk, then stepped into the elevator. "Now, come on down, all six o' ya."

"At once?" Viospark asked, concerned. "Wouldn't that be a bit of a tight fit?"

"Den three o' ya at a time. Jus don' keep me waitin' on which three are comin' down first!"

BombBlast smirked. "I'm all up for going first." He stepped into the elevator, then glanced back at the others. "Well?"

"I'm not going down there," Vapotrtrail muttered, scowling and crossing arms over his chest.

"You're going to have to," Nightwing responded, nudging the Seeker. He got a glare in response.

"I will." Skyblade walked into the elevator, then turned and looked at Viospark. "Come on! This shouldn't be too bad."

"I wasn't thinking that it was," came the reply from the purple and blue femme. She walked over to the elevator and stepped inside, the door closing behind her.

Vaportrail's wings twitched irritably. "Why did he have to test us further underground and not outside? Where there's more air?"

"And risk getting seen by the humans?" Ratchet stepped into the room, looking somewhat annoyed. "I know that you Seekers prefer to be outdoors, but you're going to just have to understand that with Decepticons around, we'll be unable to allow you to leave for the sake of your own need for the sky all the time."

Vaportrail let out a huffing noise as the elevator opened up again, revealing Jazz standing by himself.

"All righ', you three," Jazz stated, motioning to the mostly-empty elevator. "Mind gettin' in?"

"Not at all," Nightwing responded, clapping a servo meaningfully on Vaportrail's shoulder. He got a glowering look from the Seeker, but the two mechs moved into the elevator without any trouble from the flier. Emberstar moved after them, staying close to her brother as the elevator doors shut behind them.

"Now, I'm guessin' dat yer de leader o' dis lil troupe," Jazz stated, looking up at Nightwing. "Considerin' how big ya are an' how yer handlin' yer Seeker friend."

Nightwing's optic ridges went up at the statement, and he looked over at Emberstar, who shrugged.

"We actually haven't considered who truly 'leads' our group, but I guess I have filled that position," Nightwing stated carefully. "I doubt I'm going to keep that position of leadership."

"Oh? An' why's dat?"

"We're in an Autobot base, being trained by an Autobot officer." Nightwing gave a dry smirk. "I think I can see a direction that we may end up going with this."

Jazz smirked. "Oh, really? Six lil' neutrals would be willin' ta join up wit' us?"

"I wouldn't have a problem with it," Emberstar offered, smiling slightly at the idea.

"BombBlast certainly wouldn't, either," Nightwing added.

"You mean de dark blue mech?" When Jazz got a nod in response from Nightwing, the Autobot commented, "He already asked if dere was a place where he could sign up as a part o' de Wreckers. Lil' bit too eager, if ya ask me."

The elevator came to a halt, and the door slid open again, revealing a large room that had the walls and floor made out of what looked like cement. Emberstar caught sight of what looked like a target range and an obstacle course on either sides of the room, with a large mat in the middle that looked like it had been nearly stomped flat. BombBlast, Viospark, and Skyblade were already standing on top of it, exchanging looks.

"All righ' den." Jazz rubbed his servos together as he stepped out of the elevator, Emberstar, Vaportrail, and Nightwing following after him. "Let's see what you six have got. How about we start wit' you? BombBlast, right?"

BombBlast looked at Jazz with something of a confused expression before his eyes widened. "Me? Really?"

"Well, since ya seemed so eager before an' all, why not?" Jazz grinned. "Target practice first fer ya. Let's see what kinda blasters ya got hidin' in yer servos."

BombBlast nodded eagerly, then moved over to the target range - where all the targets were shaped like the Decepticon symbol. Emberstar wondered if that had been done on purpose.

"Jus' tink about activatin' yer blasters," Jazz spoke up when BombBlast paused in front of one of the targets. "An' jus' de ones in yer servos - I know a mech who's got enough o' 'em dat 'e could blow up a planet wit' 'em all out at once, an' we don' want dat."

BombBlast nodded, glancing back at the mech. "Yeah. I know I've at least got bombs - Solus Prime told us about that. But she didn't tell me how to get to those because she threatened to turn me into an Energon processor if I did in her forge." A shudder passed through the mech before he returned his attention to his servos, frowning.

"...You kids really believe dat ya met Solus?" Jazz looked over at Nightwing with a curious expression.

"Not believe," the taller mech corrected. "Know."

"And we really _were_ human before that," Emberstar piped up. "And we did watch cartoons and movies and read books and played games about you guys. How else do you think BombBlast knew about Ratchet's nickname?"

"I'd 'ave said by word o' mouth, but considerin' what de Hatchet's scans brought up..." Jazz's visor bent in the middle - Emberstar guessed that the mech was frowning behind it. "Dere's more to you six dan meets de optics, isn't dere?"

BombBlast let out a short laugh. "Ain't that the truth!" A moment later, there came a whirring sound, and the mech let out a yelp of surprise. "Whoa! These are some big guns!"

Emberstar moved her attention away from Jazz, and her optics widened when she saw what BombBlast was looking at.

The dark blue mech held up his arms as he turned slightly to look over at the others. Where his servos had been a moment ago, there were now two different weapons - one looked like some kind of bazooka, while the other...

"Is that a _grenade launcher_?" Nightwing asked, eyeing the weapon where BombBlast's right servo was supposed to be.

BombBlast grinned. "Cool, right? I'm guessing I can throw some of these on my own, too, but I'm going to have to figure out how to get to them, first."

Jazz whistled appreciatively. "I can see why ya said ya wanted ta join the Wreckers. But yer gonna hafta learn how ta use dat stuff before we even think o' sendin' ya out."

"Party pooper," BombBlast muttered, gaining a scowl. There was an amused light in his optics, however, clearing showing that the mech was amused more than anything else.

"I ain't the one who needs ta learn how ta shoot," Jazz responded, wagging a digit at BombBlast. "Now, aim those things at the targets an' let's see what happens when I tell ya how ta pull the trigger."

"I think I might be able to figure it out," BombBlast replied with a knowing smirk. He turned to look at the Decepticon-symbol targets and aimed the grenade launcher at one of them. "Just like squeezing the trigger on a human gun..."

BOOM!

The grenade that was sent flying with an explosion of sound, hitting one of the closer targets in the area that Emberstar might have said was the pointed nose of the Decepticon symbol. The resulting explosion ended up causing the point to get blown to bits, and the rest of the target looked like it was covered in a layer of soot.

Jazz whistled again. "Not bad fer a greenhorn. If ya'd aimed it a lil' bit higher, den we'd have one less target ta use down here."

BombBlast hummed in agreement, grinning as the grenade launcher changed back to his left servo. He looked down at it, experimentally flexing it. "Man, that's going to take some getting used to, having it switch back and forth like that. Kinda felt a little weird."

"A lil' weird?" Jazz frowned.

"It's just going to take me some time to get used to it, that's all. Kinda feels right...but at the same time..." BombBlast shook his helm. "I'm still getting used to the idea that I'm not human anymore, I guess. Sorry if I rambled a bit."

"I've read rambling, and that wasn't rambling," Emberstar spoke up. "In fact, out of all of us, I think I'm the one who does the most rambling."

BombBlast snorted, then hefted the blaster that he had active on his right arm. "Right. Sure." He turned to look at the targets again before letting loose a blast of noise as what looked like a rocket was shot out of the barrel. The singed target he had been aiming for with the grenade launcher ended up exploding, shrapnel flying all over the area.

"Whoa," Emberstar stated, optics wide.

"A Cybertronian rocket launcher?" Nightwing guessed.

"Meh. Looks like a smaller version o' what some of the Cons use," Jazz commented. "I tink a talk wit' Wheeljack is gonna be in order fer you, considering all dat firepower ya got."

BombBlast's optics _really_ lit up when he heard that, and an eager grin appeared on his face. "You mean it?"

"Yeah. If ya wanna be a Wrecker dat badly, an' considerin' we still haven' found dem throwable grenades o' yours, Wheeljack would probably be able ta teach ya sometin'."

"Yes!" BombBlast retracted his rocket launcher, still grinning like a maniac. "This is gonna be awesome! When can I start?"

"After we get through da rest o' yer buddies." Jazz motioned to the five Cybertronians who had yet to demonstrate anything involving weaponry.

BombBlast sagged out of disappointment, doorwings drooping at the thought of waiting.

"I think I'm going to have a go at this," Skyblade stated, stepping forward. "How'd you get your guns to come out?"

"Just think about it." BombBlast tapped one side of his helm. "It's like some kind of mental command or something."

"Okay. Good to know." Skyblade nodded, then turned her attention to her servos and glared down at them. Emberstar made sure to watch the femme this time so that she could see what exactly happened when Cybertronians switched their servos for their weapons.

There came a sudden whirring noise, and Skyblade's servos disappeared in a flurry of movement before being replaced with small blasters that looked distinctly like Arcee's.

"That's really cool," Skyblade commented, looking over her blasters. "I think I'm going to like this a lot."

"Try firin' 'em," Jazz suggested.

Skyblade smirked before pointing her right blaster at one of the Decepticon symbols before rapid-firing a group of small anergy bursts. They left small scorch marks across the target, but it wasn't blown apart like when BombBlast had fired. She did the same with her left blaster and got the same results before she shifted her blasters back to her servos.

"Not bad, I guess," Skyblade commented. "Kinda wish that I had what Will does, though." She sent a pointed look in BombBlast's direction, and he gave a helpless shrug.

"Beggars can't be choosers," Vaportrail stated, smirking. He walked over to the target range himself, Skyblade moving out of his way. "My turn."

"If he looks like a Seeker, wanna bet he has weapons like a Seeker?" Skyblade asked, looking over at Emberstar.

"Probably," Emberstar responded, shrugging. "But don't they usually have them mounted on their arms or something?"

There came a shifting noise, and Vaportrail let out a whistling noise that sounded like he was amazed.

"Not too bad," Vaportrail commented in approval, inspecting what looked like rifles that were now mounted on his forearms.

"Not too bad is right," Jazz commented. "Those are null rays - pretty good weapon fer a Seeker ta have."

"Null rays..." BombBlast frowned. "That sounds really familiar for some reason, but I can't quite remember where I heard it..."

"Starscream had them at some point, didn't he?" Skyblade spoke up, frowning.

"In the first TV series," Vaportrail called back, not bothering to glance back at the others. He aimed both his arms at one of the Decepticon symbols, and two blasts of green energy slammed into it a moment later. "I think I can work with this."

The null ray rifles suddenly dropped into Vaportrail's arms, disappearing as armor slid over the open compartments they had come out of. Emberstar blinked a couple times when she saw the weapons disappear, wondering if the other Seekers here could do the same thing.

"You six're makin' me rethink the whole 'yer crazy' idea dat Ratchet's got," Jazz commented, shaking his helm at the six of them. "You six know stuff dat ya really shouldn't. Like who Starscream is, an' de name of one of our lil' human friends." He looked pointedly at Emberstar, who gained a sheepish expression. "So, you six used ta be human, huh? An' ya had access to cartoons an' stuff about us?"

"That's basically our reasons for knowing as much as we do," BombBlast admitted shrugging.

"And it's also why we don't know anything about how our systems work," Skyblade added off-handedly. She grabbed Viospark's left wrist and guided her over in front of the targets. "Your turn."

Blue optics looked at the other femme balefully; Viospark clearly didn't like the idea of using weapons. However, she then let out a sigh and looked down at her servos, a frown working its way onto her face.

"Ya mentioned sometin' about da future," Jazz continued, looking at the five Cybertronians that were not trying to activate their weapons. "Do ya know sometin' about it?"

Nightwing glanced down at Emberstar and nudged her a little bit; the femme motioned the action off as a nervous expression came over her face.

"That depends on how much is different here compared to what we know," Emberstar stated carefully, looking at Jazz cautiously. "The fact that you're here is more than enough of a difference to throw something off. And you mentioned that there were other bases here, right?"

"Yup."

"Then that changes things, too. If we're going to be of any help, it might be a good idea if we compared notes so that we don't end up giving you any false alarms." Emberstar rubbed the back of her head. "And we're going to have to be careful, too - I mean, there's a chance that us knowing about the future could change things, too."

"Time is always unpredictable," Nightwing intoned, shrugging. "If we were to say anything else on the subject, I think any one of us could end up quoting Doctor Who."

"Doctor Who?"

"Human TV show; maybe the kids know something about it if you don't want us to fill you in." Vaportrail's wings twitched - but for what reason, Emberstar wasn't exactly sure. "It's a _long_ TV show, believe me."

Jazz hummed, considering that. "I think Raf mentioned something about it a while back."

BombBlast chuckled. "Figured it'd be him."

As the mech spoke, Viospark suddenly let out a squeak of alarm that went over the sound of something transforming. Everyone turned their helms, catching sight of Viospark looking down at her arms.

"Hey, looks like you've got what I've got!" Skyblade identified, grinning at Viospark. "Why don't you try and use them?"

"I...I don't really want to. Not yet, anyway." Viospark shifted the blasters back into her servos, then looked over at Skyblade. "Transforming into this was enough of a shock - I'm not exactly ready to try and actually use built-in weapons yet."

Skyblade looked a little disappointed when she heard that, but Jazz gave a slight nod in response.

"We can take it slow, if ya want," Jazz stated. "It's not like we're gonna be pittin' ya against the Cons a cycle from now."

Viospark nodded, clearly looking relieved upon hearing that. She moved away from the targets, staying close to Skyblade.

Emberstar started to step forward, intent on taking her turn, when Nightwing suddenly moved in front of her. "Hey! What are you-"

"I highly doubt that you're going to be going into any sort of battlezone, Aria," Nightwing stated, glancing back as he reached the targets. "And even if you want to, I'm going to make sure that it doesn't happen until you can defend yourself properly."

Emberstar frowned, not noticing at first that her brother had decided to use her human name. "That's why we're down here - to make sure that we really _can_ defend ourselves. I'm pretty sure that I can, too."

Nightwing held up his right servo, which shifted into a large blaster of some kind. Emberstar had never really tried to understand the names of all the weapons that the Bots and Cons had at their digits, and she doubted that she was going to be able to start naming them off the top of her helm now.

"You've never fired a gun in your life, and you expect yourself to be able to start doing that now?" Nightwing asked dryly. "It's probably not going to be that easy." He aimed the blaster at one of the targets, and he sent a blast of dark blue energy at it. The Decepticon symbol was blown to pieces.

"I won't know until I try," Emberstar responded, crossing her arms over her chest in a huff.

"Protective much?" Jazz asked, leaning into BombBlast so that he could speak into his audio sensor directly.

"He's got what we call the 'older brother complex'," BombBlast replied. "Don't know why, but for some reason, he tends to make sure that Emberstar is kept out of danger as much as possible. It could have something to do with the fact that she usually doesn't watch where she's going all the time."

"Oh?"

"Yup. She likes to read. A lot."

Nightwing shifted his left servo into a blaster while his right went back to being a regular servo. The blaster that happened to be in his left arm looked more like a sniper rifle than the standard blaster, and that seemed to cause him to smirk for some reason.

"I was wondering if all those video games was going to pay off," he commented, aiming at one of the still-standing targets.

"Is dat what I think it is...?"

The five other Cybertronians looked at Jazz in confusion while Nightwing was doing his best to line up the sniper rifle on his arm.

"What do you mean by that?" Vaportrail asked, frowning.

The Seeker ended up getting an answer from Nightwing, and not in the way that any of them expected.

Nightwing fired off the rifle, but instead of a small energy bullet, a large beam of near-white energy was sent flying out of the barrel. When it slammed into the target Nightwing had been aiming at, it resulted in a hole bored through the center of the Decepticon-shaped target.

Nightwing stepped back when he saw the results, his left servo shifting back automatically. "What did I just do?"

_"Dang,"_ Jazz commented, sounding amazed. "I didn't think that you'd manage to pull out sometin' like dat."

"What is it?" BombBlast asked, looking at Jazz curiously.

"Dat's a Seeker weapon...I don't know what dey call it, but it's a tricky little bugger. Makes it look like what's bein' shot is bigger than it really is. Some kind of...cloakin' device hidden in the barrel. It's basically a null ray dat's been upped ta do more dan scramble circuits, otherwise."

"Oh." Nightwing looked down at his left servo with an expression of curiosity. "I wonder what Solus Prime was thinking when she added that to my systems."

"Maybe it's so that you can scare Starscream," Skyblade suggested, smirking. "Lord knows he deserves it."

Emberstar pictured Starscream turning tail as Nightwing fired the null ray-rifle, and she stifled a laugh at the thought.

"I doubt that's going to do us much good," Nightwing commented, frowning. "Maybe I can upgrade my rifle a little so that it can be a bit more useful and not be seen as something to drive mechs off."

"Yer thinkin' of upgrades already?" Jazz sounded somewhat skeptical. "Maybe you should wait a little bit before ya decide ta go a different route with yer weapons. Besides, we still have ta see what yer femme-friend's got." He motioned to Emberstar, who became indignant.

"The name is Emberstar, and he's my _brother_, not my _boyfriend_," Emberstar stated pointedly as she started over to the targets, clenching and unclenching her servos in annoyance. Her glare only got to be even more intense when she found that her servos weren't switching out for the guns that she was supposed to have.

"Try to relax," BombBlast spoke up. "You're not going to be able to force it, the way you're stiffening up."

Emberstar sent him an irritated glare, then looked back at her servos and tried to get her arms to loosen up. She felt her shoulders drop, and the resulting feeling of gears loosening up went all the way down to her servos...resulting in her servos getting the feeling that they were about to fall apart.

The femme let out a squeak of surprise as she watched her servos disappear as her red and orange armor shifted, creating two blasters that looked more like they were more heavy-duty than some of the others that her friends had.

"To think dat a femme like you got blasters like dat." Jazz sounded amazed. "Man."

"And all I have to do is pretend to pull a trigger in order to fire, right?" Emberstar looked between the two blasters that she was equipped with.

"Just touch and go," BombBlast quipped. "Like you're pressing the fire button on a video game controller."

"Okay..." Emberstar swallowed nervously - not that she really had to anymore - and lifted her right blaster cautiously before pretending that she had just squeezed the trigger of a Nerf gun.

The resulting blast went clear over the targets and slammed into the back wall, leaving a burn mark in the metal.

"You have to practice your aim," Vaportrail stated dryly.

"I kinda figured," Emberstar replied. She lifted her left arm and stood so that she could look down the barrel. The same trigger followed, and the blast that came out this time actually managed to nick the side of a target before slamming into the back wall.

"Better," Jazz stated, nodding as Emberstar turned and looked back at the mech. "Something tells me it's going to be a long time before you're sent out anywhere."

Emberstar let out a sigh and nodded before sending a glare at her blasters while keeping her shoulders relaxed. There came a sound of whirring parts, and she actually started to feel a little ticklish as the blasters came apart and were replaced by her servos once more.

"So, what now?" Viospark looked at Jazz curiously.

"Now? Now I think 'bout whether to split you six into different groups or not. Come on - let's head back up." Jazz started to move back to the elevator.

"Split us up?" Viospark blinked a couple times out of concern. "Why?"

"Well, it's obvious dat da six o' ya 'ave got different skill sets. Flyers, grounders, triple-changers." Jazz nodded to each mentioned class of Cybertronian in turn. "An' den dere's de whole trainin' you six are gonna 'ave ta go through. Transforming, battle protocols, da whole lot. I'll 'ave ta talk to OP about it, an' until den, you'll have to stay here till we figure sometin' out."

The six exchanged glances upon hearing that, Nightwing gaining a thoughtful expression.

"I suppose this means that we're going to end up running into the humans you may have in the area," Nightwing finally stated, giving Jazz a curious expression.

"Kinda inevitable, since you six know 'bout our little buddies. Dey should be comin' in in a few minutes. Come on - let's head up, an' I'll introduce ya." Jazz opened up the elevator and motioned for someone to move in.

"I'm game," Emberstar commented, moving forward. She was about to step into the elevator...only for BombBlast and Nightwing to get in first. She gave them an annoyed look before she stepped in after them, Jazz bringing up the rear.

"Goin' up," Jazz quipped, closing the elevator doors. "An' I'll come back down fer de other three."

**Heh heh heh...well, looks like we're going to have to have a little meet-and-greet next chapter. Something to look forward to the next time that I manage to post something!**

**See you next time!**


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